Thursday, May 5, 2016

first dahlia (with copperhead)

This, believe it or not, is a dahlia flower that is blooming in the garden on a plant I grew from seed THIS SPRING! Started the seeds inside in February, planted the thrifty little plants out in early April, and lo and behold, one of them is already blooming! (Also in the vase are some American wisteria flowers, hydrangea leaves, and fern fronds).

That should be the end of my dahlia story, but it's not. Yesterday, I was pointing out these new dahlia plants, plus some coming back from established roots, to my daughter, when I spotted a copperhead under one of them. Yikes! A neighbor came over and killed the copperhead, but I was spooked the rest of the afternoon and joked that I wasn't ever going outside again. Ha! I've been outside all morning, but you'd better believe I'm looking hard where I put my hands and feet.